Safety Training That Transfers: 50+ High-Energy Activities to Engage Your Learners
By Steven Cohen and Ellis Ritz
()
About this ebook
Stop wasting time, money, energy, and resources on lecture-based safety trainings that have been proven ineffective. Set participants up for success with action-based safety training activities that will prevent injuries and incidents.
Safety Training That Transfers offers more than 50 activities dedicated to different aspects of workplace safety. Each activity includes an overview, step-by-step instructions, and debriefing questions that reinforce each lesson.
The activities are so memorable that participants will be talking about them long after the formal training is complete. Activities range from a newspaper race to a safety scavenger hunt. And your employees will be excited to see what comes next. They increase knowledge, build coworker relationships, and boost morale. All incorporate adult learning theory and principles of knowledge retention.
Read more from Steven Cohen
Card Tricks: The Royal Road to Card Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Understanding Environmental Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Effective Public Manager: Achieving Success in Government Organizations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legal, Tax and Accounting Strategies for the Canadian Real Estate Investor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSustainability Management: Lessons from and for New York City, America, and the Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5ARISE Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Safety Training That Transfers
Management For You
How to Get Ideas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, 20th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge Study Guide: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Principles: Life and Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Laws of Human Nature: by Robert Greene - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 360 Degree Leader Workbook: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Intelligence Habits Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews: Ready-to-Use Words and Phrases That Really Get Results Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Company Rules: Or Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the CIA Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: by Patrick Lencioni | Includes Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First-Time Manager Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Ceos Are Lazy: How Exceptional Ceos Do More in Less Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Revised and Updated: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win | Summary & Key Takeaways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The 5 AM Club: by Robin Sharma - Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Managing Oneself: The Key to Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Managing Oneself Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Safety Training That Transfers
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Safety Training That Transfers - Steven Cohen
Preface
When we started our business in 2011 we were warned by our first client that the training participants were not going to enjoy activity-focused training. One of the first participants who walked into the room made a sly comment about being back in kindergarten, due to the pipe cleaners, modelling clay, markers, and candy in the room. There were a lot of inquisitive looks and jokes as everyone filtered into our non-traditional training space.
Believing in the power of action-based learning, we kicked off our training session with a bang. Everyone in the room had to stand up, find a partner, stand back to back, and then change five things about their physical appearance. They then turned back around and had to guess what was different. We explained this was not going to be a training program like they had ever experienced and we wanted them to be open to embracing a new style of learning, just as they had been open to engaging in a non-traditional training activity. It only took a few moments for the participants to settle in and connect with the learning at hand.
We were leading a regulatory refresher training course covering mandatory topics relating to certain safety requirements governed by the mining industry. Every year the participants went through the same training, on the same topics, in the same way. That year—in our class—they got a taste of what safety training should be. They learned about awareness through a scavenger hunt, practiced maintaining safe speeds during a relay race, learned about electrical safety by playing the game operation, and even learned about explosive hazards by setting off a blast using Diet Coke and Mentos. There were 75 participants and after the eight-hour session, many of them came up, shook our hands, and thanked us for the best training program they had ever been to.
One of our main reasons for writing this book and sharing our knowledge is to break down the paradigm of how training gets done in many organizations. We have trained hundreds of people during the past few years, and every time, with every client, in every country, we get the same engagement, participation, and feedback—this was great!
We want to let people know that training does not have to be boring! Boring training is a waste of time, money, energy, and resources. The National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine, found that people only retain 5 percent of content when going through a lecture-focused training session. Five percent! After eight hours of being bombarded with information, we only walk away with 5 percent of learned information.
We wrote Safety Training That Transfers because conducting sessions that use 300 PowerPoint slides, monotonous lectures, uninspiring deliveries, or outdated and irrelevant information is not training—it is a time waster that needs to be stopped. This is a book for those who think their employees will not embrace and participate in action-based training.
This book is also an acknowledgment that safety training, while often neglected, is an essential part of our work life. Private industry employers reported nearly 3 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. OSHA cites that employers pay almost $1 billion per week for direct workers’ compensation costs alone. Safety in the workplace is something we take very seriously and are extremely passionate about. We believe that everyone has the potential to be great; they just need a catalyst to help unlock it. This book is that catalyst. It is a means to help create experiences that can change the way work gets done. It is about creating a workplace where people can do their job in a way that is safe and productive.
Each of the six chapters in this book features activities focused on different aspects of a safety training session. An explanation of the materials, purpose, instructions, and application is provided for each activity.
1. Materials
Most of the materials used in the activities can be found in the majority of work areas, however some items may need to be purchased. This book was not designed to be a spur-of-the-moment resource for on-the-fly training purposes. It will be most useful to those who take the time to read through each activity and understand how it applies to their training needs, identify why it is important, and create a plan for gathering the necessary materials prior to commencing.
2. Purpose and Overview
Malcolm Knowles, the father of adult learning, explains that we have to understand the purpose and benefit before we decide to engage with learning. As adults we need to see some value associated with the things we do. In the purpose and objective sections of each activity, we outline why the activity is important. When conducting your training program, it is important that you spend some time explaining what the participants are about to do and why, before going on to give any directions. Give them the reasons so they understand the value—setting up the activity this way is critical to ensuring your participants fully understand what is being asked of them.
3. Instructions
The directions to our activities have been specifically crafted in a way that allows for clarity and success—we use these setups in our training sessions and they have worked well for us. There is an art to making sure you say the right words when providing directions. Our goal is never to trick our trainees, but to provide them with enough ambiguity that will lead to the outcome we want. It is important, however, that your trainees fully understand what to do. We often have a few participants repeat back exactly what the group will be doing, which is called aligned understanding and will make a significant difference as your trainees go through the exercise.
4. Delivery
There is a difference between doing an activity and playing a game. An activity is a purposeful experience that brings people together for a shared learning experience; a game is something that is done simply for fun. Even though many of our activities are fun, they have an important message or generate an important experience that directly relates to the safety theme. It is critical to debrief the group after every activity, because building the connection between what the participants did and why they learned it is the most important part in executing an effective training activity. Have the group start a dialogue to share their learning experience and help understand its connection to the activity. Application is essential to changing the status quo, but this won’t happen unless the learning is internalized and well understood.
As you go through this book we encourage you to remember that the activities, when facilitated correctly, can have a significant impact on your trainees, creating the aha moments required to ensure the application of training in the workplace. These activities are best demonstrated if you fully understand all of their components and introduce them at the right time,